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ESG Hub
ESG Hub
Tyson Foods is strategically focused on innovation and shaping the future of food. Our research and development (R&D) team is made up of food scientists, chefs, registered dietitians, packaging and processing engineers, and sensory and regulatory experts who conduct scientific testing, prototyping and new product development to deliver new and improved product attributes to our consumers.
The Tyson Innovation Lab drives faster innovation, new growth and increased speed to market for new products. Its main goal is to generate revenue growth for Tyson Foods by developing disruptive products that push us into new spaces. The lab also strives to build our innovation capabilities by exploring new paths to market, jumpstarting other innovation initiatives within the company, and partnering with other startups on leading-edge technology and ingredients. The lab’s framework uses a startup mindset through a unique acceleration phase that enables the team to create and test a product in a six-month window. Our Innovation Lab team remains agile and maintains this speed to market so that we can innovate faster than the consumer changes.
The Innovation Lab’s existence is a result of taking a step back and looking at how things could be done differently and building a close-knit, high-functioning group of collaborators. The low-risk environment in which the Innovation Lab works also enables its success; limiting financial, brand and customer relationship risk allows the Lab to take chances and explore nontraditional paths to market.
Consumers are changing the way they eat: flexible diets are on the rise, fueled in part by desires for more creativity and variety. The majority of consumers say they are open to diets that include both meat and plant-based proteins, and as a result alternative protein is one of the fastest-growing categories in food.
Tyson Foods meets this demand with new product innovations. For example, our Raised & Rooted™ product line includes nuggets, tenders, sausages and burgers made with plants. Our Aidells® Whole Blends sausage links are made with chicken plus a blend of plant ingredients. Ultimately, our goal is to develop alternative protein not as a segment, but rather a capability that cuts across eating occasions, consumer demographics, geographies and brands.
Understanding the structure, functional ingredients and taste experience needed to create plant protein products sets Tyson Foods apart, where our R&D capabilities are second to none. This expertise, combined with our deep and long-standing customer relationships, uniquely enables us to meet the growing demand for healthy, alternative proteins.
As part of our corporate commitment to continually innovate, Tyson Ventures makes minority-stake investments in early-stage companies. The $150 million fund invests in promising entrepreneurial food industry businesses that can benefit from our scale and align with Tyson Foods’ corporate purpose to raise the world’s expectations for how much good food can do. We invest in companies that range from supply chain technology to emerging protein research to food safety technologies to team member safety. Four of our investments are in emerging protein companies: Future Meat Technologies, Memphis Meats, Myco Technologies and New Wave Foods.
Continuous research and development inform every choice we make about our products — from growing animal feed more sustainably to improving animal welfare outcomes to lowering the carbon footprint of our operations to innovating new products.
We gather consumer insights and apply the latest food science to develop new products.
Young chicken stock are purchased from poultry breeding companies and are raised on farms that produce hatching eggs. We also purchase day-old chicks from independent hatcheries which are raised as broilers.
We employ cattle buyers to visit independent feed yards and public auctions to buy live cattle that are sent directly to processing.
The majority of our live pig supply is purchased from independent producers and sent directly to processing.
We buy day-old turkey poults from an independent hatchery, and most are raised by independent contract growers until they are transported for harvest.
We procure meat and other animal ingredients such as eggs or cheese to include in our high-quality food products.
Hatching eggs are transported to the hatcheries for incubation. Twenty-one days later, the broiler chicks are moved to broiler farms and raised by independent contract growers until they are ready to harvest.
We raise a small number of sows. We work with independent contract producers to raise the offspring of those sows to market weight.
We procure the ingredients and produce our own scientifically formulated feed that primarily includes corn and soybean meal for poultry and the limited number of sows that we raise.
Animal byproducts from processing are used in animal and pet food.
Finished food is transported to retailers, stores, schools and institutions, or exported.
Live animals are harvested and converted into high-quality food.
